Prof. Lau, Raymond Wing-kamRaymond Wing-kamProf. Lau2025-04-102025-04-102020Lau, W. K. (2020). Intellectual developments in Greece and China: Contingency, institutionalization and path dependency. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.97815275470321527547035http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11861/10756This book presents a study of historical sociology and a comparison of ancient Greece’s and ancient China’s intellectual developments. It provides a special historical-sociological theoretical model, allowing the exploration of how and why Greece’s and China’s developments followed two different trajectories. This model allows a superior explanation of this phenomenon than previous studies, which all employ the outdated methodology of mono-causal determinism. This work takes the critique of Eurocentric views in comparative studies, pioneered by Joseph Needham in Science and Civilization in China, to a new level of excellence, because, in addition to presenting new empirical findings and dispelling previous misunderstandings, it also provides a sophisticated theoretical analysis. It will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of comparative intellectual studies, sinology, historical sociology, classics, and intellectual history. 498 pagesenBook